We have discovered something, said Atino in his mind, and pressed his cheek against the feet. During our secret experimentations in our laboratories. We have discovered how to harness the sun, its great energy, its tremendous power! We were not even looking for it, yet in a few hours we had it. We stood there, aghast, searching each other’s faces. We had the power of the sun! My associates and I.
He looked up at the great head. It appeared to have bent a little downward toward him. He could see the large and living eyes, listening and enormously bright.
We knew what this meant. Before what we had discovered, the atomic and hydrogen and cobalt bombs were nothing. Only firecrackers. We had discovered the secret of the sidereal universe! Did You give it to us?
The eyes appeared to fix themselves on him in assent.
Yes, yes, said Atino in his mind. You did. It was so simple, after all, as all that You have made is simple. Only man has complicated everything, made everything obtuse and complex, labyrinthine, devious. Out of his evil nature.
We had discovered the power of the worlds. Once again, as once man had been, we were little lesser than the angels. I cannot tell you of our exultation, and then our terror, and then our complete understanding of what this meant.
What should we do with this awful thing, this awesome knowledge? we asked each other. Dared we give it to the world? Dared we, remembering, give it? Would we not be traitors to You, to our fellows, if we divulged it? We shut our doors tightly for days, for nights, for weeks, while we hardly slept or ate and only whispered, our heads together, our eyes pleading with each other, asking, asking.
Washington knew we were working on something, but not what it was. Had we inadvertently given a hint at one time? One of us? Or perhaps our faces betrayed us to watchers. Or our shut doors had alerted somebody, and our silence.
We had discovered how to destroy the world, between one breath and another, to hurl its gigantic fragments into space, to destroy man and all his works.
Or we could control the power at will, direct it to any nation, while we ourselves were protected. We found we could throw up an invisible field to protect us. Any nation which has this secret can control all mankind. That is the terror!
He strained his face up toward the larger face bent down to him. Was there a terrible warning in the eyes now, even perhaps a divine anger?
Atino no longer thought of ‘superstition’. He did not feel that the mighty Figure on the cross was only wood or ivory. It appeared to encompass all the universes from fingertip to fingertip, guarding, holding. A Force greater than all the constellations and stars and galaxies. “Dear God,” he whispered, and bent his head to kiss the feet.
After a little he continued to speak in his mind.
One nation, with this, can rule the world, make all the rest of the world whimpering slaves, can desecrate Your world, can destroy what You have done and given. It can take from Your children the freedom You gave them, and the stature.
We do not trust anyone. Is America more virtuous than any other country? No. We cannot trust any government, for they are men and, being men, they are naturally evil.
But we do know that our discovery of Your wonder, Your great secret, could make an Eden of this earth again, joyous, without hunger, without lack of shelter, without fear, without pain, without hatred. It could abolish labor and disease. It could open Your universes to man. It could finally reveal Your face, Your most holy face.
Atino was weeping now, like a child. The light seemed to grow stronger upon him, like the sun itself. It warmed his coldness, calmed his heart.
We cannot trust man, he continued. We cannot trust any government to use this power for the benefit of all men. No. What, then, shall I tell them when I am in Washington? Tell me what to do! For You, for my fellow men.
Tell me what to do.
He sat for a long time, listening, looking up at the carved face which seemed to be true flesh, both pallid and flushed, crowned with agony, listening, yet silently speaking in sonorous accents like the sound of remembered thunder.
Then Atino cried out in himself: Yes! Yes, of course! That is what I must tell the men in Washington who have sent for me. I had thought to tell them nothing at all because of the watchers at the desperate outposts of the world.
He himself listened, catching his breath sharply at intervals, nodding, turning up his face eagerly, nodding, clasping his hands vehemently together. Listening.
Yes, yes, it will be so easy to devise with Your help! A simple thing, as You have told me and shown me. How very simple! If they do not agree they get nothing, and the whole world may call us traitors and persecute us. But it will do no good. We cannot betray You and Your world.
A very simple device. I will tell Washington that they may have the secret — only if the secret is given to every nation in the world simultaneously. Only if they will permit me to show the men in the United Nations the device also, when I tell them what we have discovered. Only if they install the device You have shown me, first. First.
So simple. I shall tell them that before I give them the secret the device must be installed in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, at the North Pole, at the South Pole. I can work this out in a few hours, tonight!
The device, installed in all those four places, will be guarded by ships of all nations, so that no one can tamper with it. Sunk deep in the waters, it will still be very sensitive.
If the power that I then give them is misused, is placed in a warhead and then tested secretly, then the devices will detonate every arsenal in the world, every stockpile of atomic and hydrogen bombs, including this new power of harnessing the sun. No matter how hidden, the wave lengths of the devices will find them, whether on land or sea or island. They will detonate them all. The whole world will perish in one breath. There will be no victors, no vanquished. There will be nothing left at all. There will be only fragments floating between Venus and Mars where once we had our orbit and our life. There will be universal death for man. There will be no more world.
Life. Or death. Man had that choice once before, and he chose death. Will he do it again? Only You can know. Only You. Will man choose to see Your face, or will he choose, in one instant, to die? Only You can know. I trust only You.
Yes, yes! The device is entirely clear in my mind now.
What can they do to me? We have been very careful, my associates and I. Eight of us. Each one of us has memorized only one eighth of the formula, one eighth of the calculations. You see, we didn’t even trust each other if pressure were applied. There are no written records. We destroyed them after each had memorized his part.
When I leave here I will call my best friend immediately. But not from the hotel. I will tell him that all our associates must leave at once for other countries so we cannot be taken all together and forced to speak. Our passports are in readiness. We will run. Not for our sakes, but for the sake of the world, for the men at the desperate outposts.
Then only will I go to Washington. This storm! It has protected even the destroyers, for they are men too.
Atino Kadimo stood up, refreshed, strong, full of youth and resolution.
He reached up and put his hand gently on the wounded side. “You brought me to You,” he said. He bent and kissed the bleeding feet. “So man can be protected, even against himself, from the wolf at the edge of the forest.”
He looked into the deep, great eyes, and they seemed to smile at him.
“You came to save man. Dear God. You came, as the Salvation of the world. How great is Your love.
“You brought me to You through the storm so that I may repeat the words of Your Salvation.
“For the last time. For the very last time.”
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